The Social Science Research Council's Committee on Life-Course Perspectives on Middle and Old Age, an interdisciplinary effort, investigates changes and stability in selected aspects of aging of individuals over the life course. It stresses primarily social and psychological aspects of the life course, but emphasizes interactions not only with biological, but also with demographic, cultural, environmental, and historical changes. It focuses, within the context of the life course, upon childhood, youth, and early adulthood as prologues to middle age and upon middle age as a prologue to old age. Working with selected ongoing longitudinal and historical studies, the committee aims toward an elaboration and specification of the life-course perspective through direct confrontation with the findings from these studies. As part of its program of activities, the committee and its consultants convene topical meetings, seminars and workshops, and other special projects. The results of this committee's deliberations will be prepared as working papers and as a final report for circulation to a wide range of scholars. The committee's activities are designed to result in the refinement of the life-course perspective, the identification of research questions, the recruitment of scholars, and the stimulation of new research proposals.